1 Proceedings of 8th ISCSMP (International Symposium on Cell Surface Macromolecules) volume-1

In 1987 when we organized the 1st International Symposium of Cell Surface Macromolecules (ISCSM) in New Delhi, the vision of the late Professor Bimal Bachhawat (organizer) was to invite most of the renowned researchers in the field under one roof and give them enough opportunity to discuss their love (research) while they were treated with excellent Indian food and drinks. During the last 21 years we have met eight times on the Indian soil, almost every 3 years apart. Professor Bachhawat organized the first 4 meetings in New Delhi. After his passing away the 5th cycle was organized in Bangalore (in 1999) by Professor Avadesha Surolia (ex-graduate student of Professor Bachhawat). Both the 6th (in Kolkata-2003), and the 7th (in Puri-2005) ISCSM were organized by Dr. Chitra Mandal and her colleagues. Last year (in 2008) the 8th ISCSM was organized by Dr. Amitava Chattapadhyaya at CCMB (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology) in Hyderabad, India. On next few pages we will be printing some of the pictures I took at the meeting. It was a well-arranged meeting with good food, drinks and an exciting tour to the historic Golkunda Fort at the nighttime to see the music and light show. All of these meetings were organized in the template set by the late Professor Bachhawat and at the 8thISCSM almost 50 world-renowned cell-surface researchers were invited from all over the world in addition to almost 100 to 150 young scientists from all over India to participate. Last year every paper presented at the Symposium proved that the impact of these meetings in India resulted in the initiation of interest in this field in the heart of many young Indian researchers. During the first 7-cycles of the meeting, Glycoconjugate biochemical research was the predominant theme.

Being a constant attendee of this series of meetings, I can see that last year Dr. Chattopadhaya tried his best to invite researchers of the molecules present on the cell surfaces (e.g. cholesterol, phospholipids, signal transduction receptor proteins, etc.).

Last year when Hans (Dr. J. F. G. Vliegenthart) agreed to publish these Proceedings in the Glycoconjugate Journals as special issues and requested me to edit those articles (based on the talks given at the 8thISCSM), I accepted with pleasure in public. By the end of June 2008 we have received 23 to 24 articles from the participated laboratories and processed through the newly installed electronic submission and handling systems of the Glycoconjugate Journal. Two things I did not anticipated at that time when I accepted the responsibility this time. At first, in the past I edited single-handedly and accepted all the articles after required editing work in a specified time. Secondly, all those articles are based on different areas of the cell-surface molecules other than the Glycoconjugate fields and the reviewers were also from different backgrounds: unfortunately the whole process took little longer time. Also, their comments were sometimes not related to the theme of the Symposium because they were not present at the meeting where all of these papers were presented. Attending the 8thISCSM and reviewing all the articles submitted by the participants I would suggest that under one theme, “Role of Cell Surface Macromolecules in the Regulation of Eukaryotic Cells” we could publish the two volumes of its Proceedings. I was very pleased to work with each of these articles published here. My sincere thanks to Ms. Amiee DeSouza and Mr. Mac Gatpayat who worked very hard in giving final shape to these two volumes. In the first volume we will be publishing 15 articles and rest 7 to 8 articles will be published in the second volume soon.